National Student Pride are calling on the BBC to include same-sex couples in the competition when they arrange Strictly Come Dancing this year – proving it is possible with the parody ‘Strictly Come Voguing’ at their event this weekend.
The event, the biggest gathering of LGBTQ+ students in the UK takes place this weekend on Saturday 23rd February at the University of Westminster. Focusing on the 50 years since the Stonewall Riots and racism in the LGBTQ+ community, guests include Ian McKellen, Evan Davis, Munroe Bergdorf and bisexual model Reece King.
Co-chair of the group Georgina Trott says, «Its crazy such a great show, doesn’t have same-sex couples competing. We can’t wait to show the world that two women, or two men – indeed anyone regardless of their gender identity – can dance, in any dance style».
The Strictly parody is open to all students to apply to compete and will feature a professional vogue dancing crew, The House of Revlon. The format of the show will mix a drag runway, with a voguing final – after an onstage master class. The dance form has been picked due to the ballroom scene inherently queer history, stretching back long before Madonna’s famous song was released.
Don’t know how to vogue? National Student Pride has you covered. The on stge masterclass will be led by House of Revlon’s vogue artist Kenni Maldonado.
Kenni also features in this new video teaching the student and activist Gemma Dunnell.
Kenni will go through the five elements of voguing and explains the LGBTQ+ history behind expressive dance form.
In the video, Kenni and Gemma explore some remarkably important areas of queer history; the fragmentation of the queer community comes into focus as the two discuss how voguing was born out the ballroom scene which in turn formed as a reaction to people of colour being excluded from the wider LGBTQ+ scene.
«Ball room, where voguing is from, came from the late 1970s because the POC community felt really segregated from the general LGBTQ+ community», Kennis says.
«So, we created our own safe space, our own haven, where we can express ourselves and all queer identities’ says Kenni, explaining that to him voguing is a form of self-expression, in which he can live out both fantasy and reality of his gender and sexual identity».
National Student Prides mission is to be the ‘pride of conversation’. Volunteer Luca Mitchell says «The shared experience and education between Kenni and Gemma resonates with this mission; with a conversation about breaking down barriers and uniting LGBTQ+ community».
National Student Pride is a safe space where so many queer young people attend their first pride. We hope, as so many do every year, LGBTQ+ students will walk away inspired to be their true identity.’
